Helpful apps that guide you from brilliant business idea to an actionable plan.

Below:

If you have a killer idea for a startup, but lack the time,
resources and budget to develop a business
plan, a business plan-generating app can help you get your
plan on paper and, ideally, off the ground.

A number of apps simplify the often tedious, complicated process
of crafting a thorough bank- and investor-ready business plan.
You provide the information, they organize it into a plan, and
hopefully soon you'll be in business.

Here's a look at three apps that can help get your business plan
rolling:

1. Enloop. This is an all-in-one web app that
walks users through every step of creating a traditional business
plan. Here's how it works: Based on the data you enter into the
app, Enloop automatically generates sales,
profit and loss, cash flow and balance sheet projections for
you, complete with explanatory graphs and other compelling
visual elements. Enloop also provides standard, yet
customizable business plan text for each section of your plan,
including portions focused on key company information and
financial data.

Enloop's Free & Easy option includes a single
custom business plan packaged in a clean, professionally
formatted PDF file that you can download, print and share.
More fully featured paid versions range from $9.95 a month to
$39.95 a month and allow you to make multiple business plans.
Enloop is only web-based and not yet available for mobile
devices.

2. StratPad. Alex Glassey, who designed this iPad-only app, describes it as "a
strategic-planning app that helps
entrepreneurs with the thinking and decision-making
process." StratPad can be a smart choice for people who
are writing their first-ever business plan. It is packed with
several free how-to tools for beginners, including a 58-page
business strategy tutorial, view-on-demand training videos,
email-based customer service, and more.

A free basic StratPad edition is available for students. Paid,
one-time fee plans range from $9.99 to $54.99. The more you pay,
the more advanced business plan options you get. The easy-to-use
app guides users through a series of simple questions and
prompts. Your answers are used to develop a summary business
plan, complete with revenue projections and full-color graphs and
charts.

3. Business Plan Premier. This $7.99 iPad app
does double-duty for users who are eager to have their business
plan backed fast. Not only does Business Plan Premier help you
organize and write your business plan at an extremely detailed
level, it also enables you to present your finished plan to
more than 3,000 high net worth potential investors, who are
also members of investment research firm Ben Stein & Accredited Members Inc.

Business Plan Premier leads you through writing your prospective
company's vision and mission statements, product descriptions and
marketing plans. You can also use it to complete competitive and
SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis,
outline your management scheme, identify your startup expenses,
define your target market and more depending on your needs.

Your completed business plan is exported as a Microsoft Word
document that you can edit, print, email or upload to Dropbox.
Business Plan Lite is the free (but much
less functional) version of the app.